P-Mac: The 1964 David Frost Interview

This is three years before Beatles' manager Brian Epstein died from a drug overdose. Still, if you want to talk about underlying causes of the 1970 break-up, we can talk about Yoko Ono, touring, and whatever else you want. In this scribe's humble opinion, however, it was the passing of Mr. Epstein that played as big a role as any.

You can see in this interview how McCartney is totally comfortable with having the band's manager do all of the heavy lifting. You remove that piece from the puzzle, thus allowing the Beatles to form Apple Records and effectively manage themselves, and you've introduced an entirely different element into the inter-relationship dynamic: Making money, preserving money, and managing money. Now throw in Yoko, creative differences, and 4 individuals with unprecedented superstar status occupying space in the same band, well, then, it was only a matter of time things begin to crumble.